Don’t get caught with your finances down!
On days like we have been having lately it is tempting to just turn off the TV, avoid reading the paper or surfing the finances pages of the internet. However sticking your head in the sand - as reassuring as it can be at the time - is a great way to guarantee that you go down with the ship! The worst thing you can do is assume the strategy that got you where you are today, which has worked great over the past 20 years, will continue to work for you over the next 5 years: it won’t work. The system is broken.
So you may be asking what can you do? Well here are a few simple idea’s:
1) Manage your emotions. Breathe. Look out of the window and appreciate the autumn views. Notice all the looming disasters you’re afraid of, and notice also that you do have options and can improve your situation even in the worst of times.
2) Think long term, this market downturn is a buying opportunity if you have the cash to do it, other wise sit tight and focus on your long term financial goals. Solid companies, strong balance sheets and good dividends.
3) Shore up your own personal balance sheet by paying off your debt. Limiting your liabilities is the best thing that you can do in these volatile times. The financial analists are predicting that credit may be harding to get in the very near future. You will greatly improve your credit score by paying off your debts and leaving your credit lines open and only using them when needed and paying them off immediately.
The worst is over? Think again
As taken from the Globe & Mail. See my comments below.
The stock market would have you believe that the worst of the financial mess is over, and that it’s time again to buy, buy, buy. But Barry Ritholtz, who writes The Big Picture Blog, thinks the buying frenzy of the past week is a head fake that will end badly.
“The anticipated bear market bounce in financials has led to the usual fools’ chorus that the worst is behind us, the economy is on the mend, and a recession is avoided,” he said. “How’s the economy doing? You tell me.”
He then goes on to list (and it’s a long list) the problems that continue to plague the U.S. economy. For one, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are suffering, but so is mighty Toyota Motor Corp., a sign that this isn’t an isolated slowdown affecting a couple of troubled names.
The nay-sayers are at it again. So there is no time better than the present to take control of you finances. The so called professional’s are not doing so hot at it. This is what I mean by that comment, I want you to take control of your finances so that the banks, credit card companies or any one you may owe money to is not in control over you. So that when the economy tanks, and no one is giving out credit any more ( well they are, but they are making it harder to get) and people still need it. I want you to be in a position where you can fund you own life style. Where you will not have to go hat in hand to the local bank or broker so you can rob Peter to pay Paul. Please contact my office so we can show you how to take back control and get back in the driver’s seat toward your own financial freedom.
Cheers,
Pat
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